Diane P. Sullivan

PRINCETON, NEW YORK - While specializing in high-stakes litigation that has garnered extensive media coverage across a wide range of practice areas and industries, Diane P. Sullivan has established a career as one of the most successful trial attorneys in the nation.

For more than 35 years, she has delivered dozens of verdicts collectively worth tens of billions against long odds in plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions.

She has represented Fortune 500 companies in complex commercial, mass tort, patent and class action litigation around the country, as well as some of the biggest names across industries, including Altria, ESPN, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Walgreens.

In September 2022, while representing Altria Client Services, Sullivan and her team successfully won a $95 million plaintiff jury verdict in competitor patent litigation against R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. Altria Client Services LLC v. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., 1:20-cv-00472 (M.D.N.C, filed May 28, 2020).

The case involved "Altria's portfolio of patents directed to e-vapor and other technologies related to the important area of smoking cessation, including asserting that Reynolds' 'bestselling' Vuse Alto vapor product was infringing our patents," Sullivan explained.

The jury unanimously found in favor of Altria on all of its client's asserted patents, awarding past damages based on the 5.25% royalty rate urged by Altria. Altria also stands to recover hundreds of millions in future royalties.

In a case involving the first opioid trial that targeted pharmacy retailers, Sullivan served as replacement lead trial counsel for Giant Eagle Inc., winning a mid-trial global settlement of all Multidistrict Litigation cases. In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 1:17-md-02804 (N.D. Ohio, filed Nov. 4. 2022).

The jury found the other defendants liable and issued a verdict against them of $650 million. "A key part of the trial was helping the jury understand how Giant Eagle employees approached their work," Sullivan said. "We were the only defendant to use a local pharmacist from the community as our corporate representative."

During the cross-examination, information relating to the disparate response public officials offered in criminalizing opioid use in minority communities across the country was elicited. "Our involvement ensured that this important caveat to the public health narrative being advanced by plaintiffs became a pivotal piece of the trial."

Following openings and several cross-examinations, Sullivan and her team obtained a highly favorable settlement for Giant Eagle, Inc. in Nov. 2021. The jury found the remaining co-defendants liable for contributing to the epidemic. The remaining defendants agreed to pay $12 billion to settle their multidistrict litigation opioid liability.